NEW YORK: Gold hit a more than one-and-half year high on Thursday as investors sought cover in the safe-haven metal after Russia invaded Ukraine, aggravating supply risks to palladium and powering prices of the autocatalyst to a seven-month high.

Palladium rose 4.5% to $2,594.65 an ounce at 11:28 am ET (1648 GMT), having hit its highest level since July at $2,711.18 earlier.

Spot gold rose 0.9% to $1,923.86 per ounce, having touched $1,973.96 earlier, its highest since September 2020. US gold futures added 0.7% to $1,923.00.

“As long as the breadth and length of the conflict remains uncertain, I don’t see investors wanting to sell any of these Russia sensitive metals or energy,” said Tai Wong, an independent metals trader in New York.

Gold prices eased from their session highs, which traders attributed to increased liquidity into US trading hours as equities attempted to recoup some of its steep declines.

“A lot of these concerns of tougher growth outlooks and just difficult inflationary mix is something that the overall US economy will be able to handle,” said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at brokerage OANDA.

Russia’s Nornickel is the world’s largest supplier of palladium and a major supplier of platinum.

The deficit-hit palladium market could squeeze towards $3,000, Wong said.

The assault on Ukraine was the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.

“It’s more than what the market was anticipating,” said RJO Futures senior market strategist Bob Haberkorn.

“If Russia in fact does take Kiev and the international community has an aggressive response, gold will trade up over $2,000 fairly quickly” and the least path of resistance is up because there are just so many unknowns right now, Haberkorn added.

Silver rose 0.8% to $24.71 per ounce. Platinum fell 1.5% to $1,074.97, seeing a relatively volatile session after rallying to as high as $1,126.18.